A year before a fledgling company called Ferrari put its first prancing horse on an automobile, another future Italian icon made a much quieter, but no less auspicious debut. The Vespa, meaning "wasp", was meant to be the mechanized equivalent of its insectoid inspiration -- sleek, nimble and extremely efficient.
Its parent company, Piaggio, founded in Sestri Ponente in 1884, initially manufactured locomotives and railway carriages before converting to aircraft during World War I. Finding itself with idle factories at the conclusion of World War II the Vespa was invented for the dual purpose of providing cheap transportation and keeping workers and machinery employed.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/
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